Insider Selling: Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) CEO Sells 171,744 Shares of Stock

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $9,873,562.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,059,857.14. This trade represents a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of CSCO opened at $57.01 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $54.52 and its 200-day simple moving average is $49.95. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $59.38. The firm has a market cap of $227.51 billion, a PE ratio of 24.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. The business had revenue of $13.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.78 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.98 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.89 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.81%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 68.67%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of CSCO. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 59.3% in the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 775,559 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $36,847,000 after buying an additional 288,775 shares during the period. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 24.4% in the second quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 264,647 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $12,573,000 after acquiring an additional 51,924 shares in the last quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.9% during the third quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 1,658,417 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $88,261,000 after acquiring an additional 162,544 shares during the period. Quintet Private Bank Europe S.A. raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 17.0% during the third quarter. Quintet Private Bank Europe S.A. now owns 635,667 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $33,830,000 after purchasing an additional 92,179 shares in the last quarter. Finally, IRON Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at about $856,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have commented on CSCO shares. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $53.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. StockNews.com raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Tigress Financial increased their price target on Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $59.94.

About Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems, Inc designs, manufactures, and sells Internet Protocol based networking and other products related to the communications and information technology industry in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, Japan, and China. The company also offers switching portfolio encompasses campus switching as well as data center switching; enterprise routing portfolio interconnects public and private wireline and mobile networks, delivering highly secure, and reliable connectivity to campus, data center and branch networks; wireless products include wireless access points and controllers; and compute portfolio including the cisco unified computing system, hyperflex, and software management capabilities, which combine computing, networking, and storage infrastructure management and virtualization.